Let's take a long-term view of household net worth from the latest Z.1 release, which also includes the net worth of nonprofit organizations.
A quick glance at the complete data series shows a distinct bubble in net worth that peaked in Q4 2007 with a trough in Q1 2009, the same quarter the stock market bottomed. As of Q4 2025, the latest Fed balance sheet indicates that household net worth has risen a staggering 211% since reaching its 2009 low.
Household Net Worth: The "Real" Story
However, over the six decades of this data series, the value of the dollar has shrunk dramatically to about $0.13 while household net worth has grown nearly 17,000%. Thus, to truly understand how much wealth has grown, we must adjust for inflation.
When adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Price Index, household net worth has actually increased by only 104% since the 2009 trough. While the nominal Q4 2025 net worth is up 1.2% from the previous quarter and 8.5% from one year ago, the real (inflation-adjusted) figures are a more modest 1.1% quarter-over-quarter and 5.7% year-over-year.
To put this in a long-term context, a linear vertical scale on the nominal chart is misleading as it fails to accurately illustrate growth over time and gives an exaggerated dimension to the bubble that began in 2002. Here is a log scale chart showing real total net worth (adjusted for inflation).
Here is the same chart with an exponential regression through the data. The regression helps us see the twin wealth bubbles that peaked in Q1 2000 and Q1 2007 (the Tech and Real Estate bubbles), as well as the most recent peak in 2021. The trough in real household net worth was in Q1 2009. This indicator is currently 7.5% above its long-term trend. The annualized growth rate over this time frame is 3.17%.
